Be With Me(95)

When she was a mile from the turnoff to the house, she saw a familiar truck pulled to the side of the road. She leaned forward and frowned as she got closer. It was Hutch’s truck.

She pulled up behind it but could see that no one was inside. Dread crept up her spine, and she reached for her gun. Prickles of unease danced across her skin as she slowly got out, her gun in front of her.

As she walked toward the driver’s side door, she saw the scrape of red paint on the white exterior.

Sideswiped. Someone had sideswiped him and forced him onto the shoulder.

The door was slightly ajar, but what stopped her cold in her tracks was the splatter of blood on the ground. Her gaze traveled upward to see a smear of blood on the window.

She peered inside but found it empty. She whirled around to look on the ground and found a flurry of footprints, crossing over one another, some pressed deep into the dirt of the shoulder.

A struggle.

Her hands shook and panic swel ed in her chest.

He had Hutch. The son of a bitch had Hutch. She knew they had the wrong guy.

She took in the black tire marks leading from the far right of the road toward the middle and then back into the right-hand lane. Traveling north.

She ran for her car and yanked open her cel phone to cal it in.

Please, Hutch. Be all right.

And then she prayed they’d find him in time.

Chapter 35

Hutch’s eyes flicked open, and pain stabbed him in the temple. He winced and closed his eyes again as he tried to figure out what the hel had happened.

A surge of adrenaline rocketed through his veins when he recal ed the van slamming into his truck and forcing him to the shoulder.

Before he’d been able to get out and bitch at the driver, he’d been hauled from his truck by a man over a head tal er and about a hundred pounds heavier.

Hutch had fought back, but a crowbar to the head had ended the fight in two seconds.

He tried to raise his fingers to his head to see how badly he was hurt but quickly figured out that he was trussed tighter than a Christmas turkey.

Goddamn it.

He wiggled his fingers experimental y and tried to restore some feeling to them. His hands were tied behind his back and his ankles were bound together.

Fear washed over him. Not for himself but for Reggie. Was this the same ass**le who’d attacked her? What was it she’d said? That this whole thing was some sort of payback against him?

He didn’t have any f**king enemies that he knew of. His only close friends were Reggie, Sawyer and Cam. He’d fired a few construction workers, but come on. That happened a lot and they didn’t go around kil ing people over it.

The pounding in his head viciously increased, and he had to pant against the nausea curling in his stomach. He had to get the hel out of here. He had to find Reggie.

“I see you’re awake.”

The sneer echoed across the dimly lit room and startled him into stil ness. He lay there unmoving, uncertain of where the man’s voice had originated from.

He didn’t have to wait long. Light from a kerosene lamp flooded the room as it bobbed closer to him.

A large figure loomed over him. Christ, the man was big. Fear tightened his gut. Was this the ass**le who attacked Reggie? Rage replaced his fear.

“Look at me,” the man said angrily.

Hutch stared back at the man. “Do I know you?” Rage simmered across the other man’s face.

Hatred. Hatred directed at Hutch.

“You don’t recognize your brother, Hutch?” he snarled.

Hutch blinked in shock. Brother? Daniel?

“Yeah, that’s right. Your little brother in the flesh.

Although,” he said, “you’re looking more like the little brother right about now, don’t you think?” God, it was like looking at his father. They were nearly identical in size and personality. Bile rose in his throat as memories of the night his mother died came crashing back.

“Why do you hate me so much?” Hutch asked faintly. “Why are you trying to destroy the people I love? What have I ever done to you? If you want to hate someone, hate our father.”

Daniel’s eyes went cold. “Why do I hate you?

Because you left me, you son of a bitch. You left me with that bastard. I endured years of his beatings, his drinking and his mood swings while you were off getting a new life, replacing me with other brothers.

You had everything and you never once gave a damn about me.”

The words, so harshly spoken yet with such an edge of pain, took Hutch’s breath away. His chest swel ed until he had a hard time breathing.

“I was just a kid,” he said hoarsely. “You can’t hold it against me that I had to get away from that monster.”

“You left me with him,” Daniel choked out. “I’l never forgive you for that. I’m going to take away everything you replaced me with. Your foster mother. Birdie’s her name, isn’t it? Sweet lady. She could have been my mother too, but you didn’t give a damn what happened to me.”

“Christ,” Hutch said, the words he wanted to say nearly strangling him. “Daniel, listen to me. Birdie isn’t to blame. Al she did was take in boys who didn’t have a home. She would have taken you too if she’d known about you. Don’t blame her. Blame me.”

“And your cop girlfriend,” Daniel continued on as if Hutch hadn’t spoken. “I would have kil ed her but the bitch fought back.”